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04/07/06 Magnet Entertainment & Eircom Shenanigans
We subscribed to Magnet Entertainment triple-play package over 2 months ago and are still waiting. That’s 30 IP-TV channels, VOIP phone services (free UK & Ireland calls) and 2Mb/s broadband, sounds good doesn’t it. We had to change our phone number, but we thought the deal was good enough to make it worthwhile. After no contact for 1 month we began ringing them, but no-one could tell us anything.
Each time we’d be told they had to talk to ‘operations’. After 5-10 minutes on hold we were told operations were looking into it and the support person would call us back that afternoon. We never got a call back, ever. Except once after I made a fuss about this and made this girl promise to actually call back, which she did at 5pm to say “we haven’t forgotten, we just haven’t gotten around to it today, but we’ll call tomorrow”, no call ever came. Still waiting.
Now, after 2 months we’ve made contact with someone who could tell us something… and they told us they were waiting on Eircom to ‘unbundle’ our line. Oh, right… “oh and by the way… we may have forgot to mention when you signed the direct debit, your phone-line & broadband connection will be disconnected for 2-3 weeks in the transfer”. Uhh ohh, wrong answer Magnet. The broadband is an ‘Eircom business account’ used to keep a business alive from a home office… 3 weeks offline. No way.
I think you’ve now lost a customer who was highly enthused at the start. Pity for both of us really after 2 months we never got off the ground.
(Please note: in all conversations I’ve had with people about this, I have kept to my guns that while Magnet’s customer care is really awful I believe the delay is Eircom’s fault for making it difficult for us to move rather than Magnet’s directly.)
Edit 2133hrs: I just realised Magnet’s Press Officer (see bottom of release) subscribes to this feed.
Tags: General, Observations
11 Comments
Did they forget to tell you that you lose your number too? Not really viable for a business. Ooops. Just read the post again. So they did. Still, having to change your phonenumber if you’re a business does not make business sense. Clever of eircom not to allow this. Keeping business customers makes sense.
26/07/06 Jane Henry
I made it through the long wait period,yep I had one also. Now I regret ever approaching Magnet. THe service is EXTREMEMELY unreliable. Our phone line crackles all the time making it jolly hard to have a decent chat AND folks trying to call us often can’t get through. Also the TV service is really unreliable, sometimes we can’t access any TV channels. The DSL service is fine though, but its not enough. THey promise Phone, TV and Broadband.
My advice is do yourself a favor and stay the hell away from Magnet. Believe me, they WILL break you.
11/09/06 AJ
I have similar problems and the response has been so poor I have had to escalate it to Com Reg. I suggest you do the same as the promises do not match what can be delivered.
22/11/06 Angry Steve
they are terrible, pure sh!te, seriously don’t go near them. Just completed a 3 page complaint letter to them.
“Each time we’d be told they had to talk to ‘operations’. After 5-10 minutes on hold we were told operations were looking into it and the support person would call us back that afternoon. We never got a call back, ever. Except once after I made a fuss about this and made this girl promise to actually call back, which she did at 5pm to say “we haven’t forgotten, we just haven’t gotten around to it today, but we’ll call tomorrowâ€, no call ever came. Still waiting.”
Happened to me.
“THe service is EXTREMEMELY unreliable. Our phone line crackles all the time making it jolly hard to have a decent chat AND folks trying to call us often can’t get through. Also the TV service is really unreliable, sometimes we can’t access any TV channels.”
AGREED
I’m so pissed off cos I’ve no choice but to go with them as apt is wired solely for Magnet ;(
25/01/07 Medo & Mags
I understand where all of you are coming from. It is now ONE year since we signed up with Magnet and it still isn’t sorted. Massive problems with our phone and TV. Broadband we can handle. There have been a few attempts to fix the problem but nothing major. Sent a letter to the Customer Services Director (registered) but nothing was done before the 28 days time limit. Like one of you who commented, we cant have anything else as we have no choice where we live and are not allowed Sky dishes. We have been on to Comreg and also I have heard that the Competition Authority will be looking into it very soon and a decision will be made soon if it will be going to the High Court. All our neighbours are the same in houses and apartments alike. Obviously they need to do something quick before this turns very ugly.
I feel sorry for the CSR’s in Magnet. We have a new gentleman on board who I believe is quite good Mr John Gilhooly. Lets hope he can sort something. Please God. If our problem continues I am going legal. Cant take anymore.
01/05/07 angrymagnetcustomer
I completely agree with Medo & Mags. I too live in an apartment block which is pre-wired with Magnet’s fibre-to-the-home services, therefore I cannot go with NTL, Chorus, etc. except Magnet, and Sky dishes are not allowed.
I’ve signed up with Magnet for 6 months. It took them a month to get everything up and running, and after that, not a week goes by without some sort of problem occuring, mostly with the TV and phone lines. I have written several angry complaint e-mails to their online support, none of which were answered, and I cannot even count the amount of times I was on the phone with them.
I’m paying €65/month for TV and Broadband (and €10 more for the phone), which is €15 more than what I paid for NTL Digital + Broadband, and with NTL, I got more TV channels and overall better services.
Surely Magnet know that they charge MORE than their competitors and have LESS to offer (outright lies on their website)! Or are they only looking for business from apartment developments where they have already installed the fibre-optic cable??
15/06/07 Frank Flannery
Exact same problems with Magnet. Recently upgraded (ha ha) my tv package, what a joke!! I’d pick up more channels with an aerial! Customer service is a disgrace, will ring you back , Yes , the following day to tell you their still working on it. This company needs to get their act together.
Another disgruntled customer
20/06/07 blh
i ‘v been trying to connect a sky digital box through a magnet phone line, without much luck and for the past three days i’v been on to magnet daily. Today however they did phone me back and told me that 95% of magnet customers would have no problem connecting their digital boxes through the magnet system but i was unfortunately one of the “5%” and it was unlikely that they would be able to resolve the issue as magnet are competitors of sky after all. so really they are boxing out their competitors.
23/06/07 MagnetFrustration
Magnet seem to be trying to run a big company on a shoestring. Their management and internal coordination does not appear to be really sufficient to run the services they are trying to provide. Their landline telphone reception sounds like a mobile phone and at times has a reception like a train going through a tunnel. The TV reception constantly breaks up and becomes blocky. The broadband service however is excellent.
Getting Magnet set up was a real frustration given the Tele sales/tech support promise the earth but they subcontract out the installlation work to a seperate company and the coordination between the two seperate companies appears to be non-existant.
Little things are also annoying like not being able to use Setanta’s pay per viw service and getting no information about setting up a Magnet email account. Everything except their broadband is substandard and my impression is Magents set up in Ireland is mickey mouse and is not properly resouced or managed. Sign up if you want a second rate shabby service provider.
11/09/07 anotherveryannoyedmagnetcustomer
I couldn’t agree more with all of the above.
MAGNET ENTERTAINMENT IS PURE MUCK.They are cowboys. The only decent area of their service is the broadband and even that is dodgy at times. I could go on and on about them but will try to limit it.
Customer service is a complete joke - their answer for all problems is the “will call you back” line. Of course as noted above they never do.
I feel really sorry for the people who have no other choice but to use them due to apartment block connections etc.
I’m still with them though - only reason - they are such idiots that they have only billed me for 60% of what I owe them, and at that rate makes them competitive (but only just about).
Oh and also - Magnet employees are pure idiots - yes I will say that again - MAGENT EMPLOYEES ARE PURE IDIOTS (could use stronger terms but I don’t want to be too cruel).
Finally to sum up - I HATE MAGNET ENTERTAINMENT
29/01/08 Bob
I think they are ok on the broadband side. Lightning blew my box and i had another one in two days. I never tried to use the telephone (jyos of a mobile) but got sky today. Couldn’t connect to the phone line (10mins on hold for customer services) so ended up paying 40notes for no phoneline connection to sky. Going to chase this up though.
